When pipes are joined and used in for example a downhole, sub-sea or remote environment it is advantageous to log the position of individual pipes or to detect the position of individual pipes when the pipe and/or surrounding hole is re-entered. This is useful to e.g. allow accurate placement of side-tracks, packers and perforations.
At the moment logging of this nature is done by measuring the distance a tool has travelled within or adjacent to the pipe, counting the number of connections or by positioning easily identifiable markers, such as magnetic or radioactive markers, in the hole alongside, and attached to, the pipe, which may be a production tubing and/or casing which marker may be found using specialized equipment. In addition special pup joints are often used for this purpose. The existing methods for marking pipe joints are expensive, time consuming and may lead to a quick wear of the markings and replacement of worn markings may require retrieval of the entire pipe string from a well, which is very expensive.